195 comments:

Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.

I misread the puzzle and thought I had the answer right away. Instead of anagramming the nickname, I got a very famous musician whose nickname also includes the name of a body part. Slightly more or less famous, depending on your generation but famous nonetheless.

All this white-wash BS on the demise of John McCain is more than I can take. Even NPR can't tell the truth. I suggest reading this very well researched and written Rolling Stone article from ten years ago:

Did you happen to hear the hour long NPR whitewash filled with lies, misrepresentations and exaggerations this evening that completely ignored all the horror this criminal hack legislated to attack the ordinary people of this country he professed to love so much, but trashed? So now younger and future generations will go on to idolize this creep along with the likes of Ronald Reagan. Whatever happened to journalism?

The name Armstrong occurred to me fairly quickly but I didn't think of Louis until I read cranberry's "lip" clue. WW's clues are never helpful; that's just another feature of the Wonderful World in which we live.

We temporary homed a kitty one night. The next day we wanted to take him to the shelter... We didn't have a carrier so we put him in the gym gear... It was too much (pun-wise) to let the cat out of the bag.

Take the last name of a musical family that plays roughly the same kind of music as the musician that is the answer to this weeks challenge. The Family name meets the NEANDERTHAL EMBARRASS SATURATION CONTEMPTUOUSNESS criteria. (but is not composed exclusively of “narrow” or “short” letters)Two members of this family are very well-known to fans of that style of music. When you take the first name of the younger musician and insert a letter in it, phonetically you get the first name of a famous 20th century politician.When you take the first name of the older musician and insert the letters “D” and “T”, you get, reading left to right the last names of two other 20th century politicians. (One American and one Non-American)

Here are some bonus challenges with the same rule: in each word or phrase, change two consecutive letters to name a country.1) CHORUS2) ANGINA3) RHONDA4) POLLED5) AIRWAY6) LATINA

Bonus Puzzle #1: Name a famous American political figure of the past whose last name contains a body part. This person had another title that anagrams to a musician's first and last name. What is the politician's name and title, and the musician's name?

Bonus Puzzle #2: Name a famous American of the first half of the 20th Century whose last name is phonetically composed of 2 body parts. I keep thinking this was an actual puzzle, but can't find it.

I think that it was no coincidence that the news of the new trade deal with Mexico was announced today. I think that it was timed to deflect attention from John McCain's death and all its accompanying press coverage. I bet Trump is pretty annoyed that McCain is the center of attention.Just sayin'.

I'll put this “preliminary agreement in principle.” (White House words, not mine) right next to that complete denuclearization of North Korea. It's not a deal, there are details to be worked out. NAFTA was a 3 way deal with Canada, and can only be changed with Canada's agreement. Not to mention our Congress, and so far that requires a fillibuster proof Senate. Enrique Peña Nieto needs to get this done before he leaves office in December, as Obrador may not be so willing. Etc., etc.

Now, I was not the biggest fan of McCain, but I was shocked and kind of embarrassed as an American, when the White House flag was raised to its normal height early this morning. Then, it was lowered back to half mast later in the morning. I would love to hear the background story on all of this.

I am not making a point with that post. I don't understand why anyone would be at all surprised at Trump behaving badly. Both Trump and McCain are "complete and utter spoiled brat"s. To compare anyone against Trump as the benchmark of disgusting behavior is absurd. There are people who actually deserve recognition, but I would have a very hard time trying to name one who is a current member of our national government.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. I don't see why he deserves recognition for crashing more planes than probably any other serviceman in our history, not to mention being the cause of other expensive war planes being lost to his ineptitude on that carrier when he caused the deaths of 134 of his fellow crewmen, not to mention the injuries to more than that. He did not need to lose his plane either. He should have taken evasive action to both save himself and his aircraft, like he was instructed to do in the training he paid little attention to.

He then became a U.S. Senator and did nothing at all for the people of this country. Not a single thing. Instead he worked to take from the ordinary citizens.

There may be some truth to that, but so what? They both are, and were, enormously destructive to our country and the lives of those they were elected to serve. What is the point of arguing over who was more evil, Hitler or Stalin? The results of their actions destroyed the lives of millions.

I am no fan of John McCain, he is another weasel (sorry Mustelids) who has shown extraordinary flexibility in his personal beliefs, while displaying absolute rigid tenacity in his own self-promotion.

Having said that, I must be skeptical of the stories that McCain was responsible for the Forrestal fire. Snopes, Factcheck, and Trughdig all say he was not the cause, as did the article you posted from Rolling Stone. In fact, according to Snopes the revived rumor of his causing the tragedy was revived by ... wait for it ... "a series of pro-Trump fake news web sites."

I'm not here to praise, but we should not spread what seem to be falsehoods. There are easier, more verifiable aspects to criticize.

That may be right about the Forrestal fire. I have not been concerned about it before, and cannot say for sure. I can say for sure that McCain should not have been there in that plane when it happened because he was not qualified to be a Navy pilot. Anyway I am against McCain because of how he behaved as a senator. I am not concerned with comparing him with Trump, or McConnell, or Ryan, or Palin, or Pence, or Bush or any of the other Republican presidential candidates. The end results of what these elected officials do, or have done, is very similar, and perhaps even going to make our planet uninhabitable for humankind. They are all venal and self-serving and the enemies of the people. It galls me no end when a villain is lionized and falsely held up as a patriot and hero. It only makes any hope I have for our future less likely to happen.

Yeah, thanks Eco. That version in the Snopes article is how I remembered it being reported, when it happened.I was too young for Vietnam and will not second guess his actions. It appears, from a lot of different sources, that McCain was not a "songbird" either. Hey, thank God that da*n war is over. I wish I had the answers as to how to end the wars we are in now. I know McCain did not have them.

For those who enjoy math puzzles, the current Joseph Young's Puzzleria! (see Blaine's PUZZLE LINKS) is serving up a pretty decent (IMHO) sequence puzzle titled: "Blanks that flank not 'drank' but '8' "You can find it on our menus between the "Schpuzzle of the Week" and the seven "Ripping Off Shortz And Young" Entrees.

Apropos of nothing, I do contracting work for a government agency. My contracting company has a strongly mixed workforce consisting of people ranging in age from young Millenials, fresh out of college, to late Boomers nearing retirement age (and, at least one woman who they lured out of retirement). I find it refreshing to work with highly intelligent folks of all ages. In a meeting last week, one of the young whipper-snappers mentioned Herbie Hancock, prompting blank stares from his fellow Millenials. Of course, all of the folks in the room over a certain age were familiar with that jazz luminary. One of the 20-somethings I work closely with happens to be named Cecilia. I really want to know if she's heard of the song of the same name, let alone its creators, Simon & Garfunkel.

Another Bonus Puzzle: Change one letter in the full name of a former candidate for President of the United States and the result will be a well-known mythological creature. What is the name of the candidate and the creature?

Hint: this was definitely not the nominee of a major political organization, but it did come from a major party.

I just looked through an entire list of mythological creatures, and nothing even came close to looking like a presidential candidate's full name. Thank God we didn't have that for this week's challenge!

A bit of related trivia:Name the only(sorta)known pop song to ever hit the charts that alludes to a possible act of cannibalism, and name the one-hit wonder group who recorded it. Hint: The lead singer(and possible songwriter)would later go on to have a huge solo hit with much lighter lyrical content, the title of which contains a type of alcoholic beverage.

Did you know Rupert actually wrote the song in part to see if it could get banned from radio airplay, and somehow this would make it more popular? It also ended up peaking at No. 17 on the charts on April 17, 1971(two days after my first birthday, thanks a lot Buoys). Good thing I was way too young to even know about it. Why would anyone dare release a song about cannibalism in the first place? And does human flesh actually pair well with a pina colada?"I was tired of my lady/We'd been together too long...and I was quite hungry, so while she lay there sleepin'..." I'll just stop paraphrasing from there.

It was actually eight weeks after April 17 when it reached #17. After the cannibalism controversy had started, the Buoys' label, Sceptre Records, started a rumor that Timothy was a mule, not a person. On Mystery Science Theater 3000, they suggested he was a duck. Either way, it's enough to make anyone lose their appetite. Yuk.

Liz,Was your mother working for the candidate in the bonus puzzle? I know/ knew two central supporters (I didn't know them then, one died about 12 years ago), the other is very much alive and still kicking assets.

I was responding to Jan's '50 years ago...' I don't have the answer for the bonus puzzle, so I will not mention names. My mother was the campaign chairman for a presidential nominee (key word) in our small county in Indiana. I was 9 at the time. I remember to this day how upset she was.

I'm posting so all the young whippersnappers who "get the solution before getting out of bed" realise that even seniors ( 76, and demented ) can solve some puzzles quickly....this particular one took me only 4 min. to solve !...the shortest time ever !.... Big Ron

Another Bonus Puzzle: Name a famous person in sports whose last name contains a body part. The sports(wo)man has a two-word nickname that, after removing the third letter (which is an "e"), anagrams to a chess piece.

Oh, I've had my fair share of oohing and aahing over deposits of minerals or fossils; there just were no living (at the time) things to have pain. I know what you are saying though; my doctor friend also gets excited about unusual things happening to her patients. It’s the thrill/satisfaction of a new diagnosis (with or without planets in them). ;-)

LOUIS ARMSTRONG, SATCHMO, STOMACHMy "lip service" comment had to do with Armstrong's lip damage he suffered due to his aggressive style of trumpet playing.My "hit the ceiling" comment was in reference to Armstrong ceiling tiles(no relation). In the late-50s cartoon "Knightmare Hare", where Bugs Bunny meets up with a knight in a dream sequence after he's been reading about knights, Bugs lists a few of his "friends" that the knight may have heard of, all jazz musicians: "The Duke of Ellington, Count of Basie, Earl of Hines, Cab of Calloway, SATCHMO of ARMSTRONG..."

the musician's name, as stated, has some controversy. Do you say Loo-ee or Lew-is? Wikipedia discusses this. In Hello Dolly he says "This is Lew-is, Dolly." The "as stated" also refers to his home state, LA, same as his initials.

another musician associated with this week's answer also contains a body part. Armstrong's mentor was King Oliver

a variant nickname for this week's answer is a synonym for something this person might do with a different body part. SATCHMO - SATCH = PURSE. One purse's one's lips to play the trumpet.

The Bonus Puzzles! (I know you've been waiting, sorry I was in meetings all day!)

famous American political figure of the past whose last name contains a body part. This person had another title that anagrams to a musician's first and last name. What is the politician's name and title, and the musician's name? >> General George Washington; general anagrams to Al Green.

Change one letter in the full name of a former candidate for President of the United States and the result will be a well-known mythological creature. What is the name of the candidate and the creature? >> This was more historic than a puzzle, 50 years ago this week the Youth International Party (Yippies, and they did party) had a 145# porcine candiate named Pigasus. I'd heard it on Amy "Good_man"'s broadcast of Democracy Now!

famous person in sports whose last name contains a body part. The sports(wo)man has a two-word nickname that, after removing the third letter (which is an "e"), anagrams to a chess piece. >> Arnold Palmer, The King - e = knight.

Snipper, were your mentions of the U.S. Open tennis tournament hints about Louis Armstrong Stadium there in Queens? The larger (Arthur) Ashe stadium there appears in crosswords all the time, but I hadn't realized (until it was mentioned in an article in the Times today that the second-biggest arena at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center was named for Armstrong.

The puzzle is based on e = 2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757..., the base of the natural logarithms, known as Euler's number. The missing elements are 5 and 6. The sequence 9, 9, 10, 9, 10, 9, 9, 9, 5, 8, 6, 10, 11, 8, 8, 8, 8 ... is derived by adding successive pairs of digits of e.

The ``elements exceed[ing] expectations'' are 8 and 9. If pairs of digits occur uniformly over the 100 pairs (0, 0), (0, 1), (0, 2), ... (1, 0), (1, 1), ..., (9, 9), then we would expect 1% of the sums to be 0, 2% to be 1, ..., 9% to be 8, 10% to be 9, 9% to be 11, ..., and 1% to be 18. The puzzle is based on 17 pairs of digits, so we would expect 1.7 sums to be 9, but we have 6, and 1.53 to be 8, but we have 5. So, the number of 8s and 9s appearing exceeds expectations.

I wrote ``elements exceed expectations'' because I like the alliteration. It didn't hurt that each word begins with e.

Some years ago there was an NFL team called the Houston Oilers. As legolambda notes on Puzzleria!, Euler is pronounced Oiler.

The ``very talented'' is a nod to his Chevrolet/Chex/Rolex problem. V and T are the letters changed to X. That said, my comment does express a sincere sentiment.

Thanks again, FloridaGuy. And, you have provided a wonderful analysis. You must be some kind of statistician!What intrigued me when I created the puzzle was that in the first 34 digits of e, the sums of the 17 pairs fluctuated so little. Indeed, 15 of the 17 were in that amazingly narrow 8-through-11 bracket, and 14 of 17 were either 8, 9 or 10! (That's 10 Wow!, not 10-factorial).By the way, I just uploaded the new Joseph Young's Puzzleria! (see Blaine's PUZZLE LINKS) about 30 minutes ago. Welcome to all.

In rereading your post, FloridaGuy, I again thank you for alluding to the "bell-curve" aspect of the possible sums from 0 to 18. As a mathematics "dabbler" it did not dawn (literally!) on me until now that of course the middling values are more likely to occur.

Yes Jan, my references to the US Open (tennis) were clueing Louis Armstrong stadium which “serves” as court 2(deuce) at the tournament. It was actually rebuilt and is debuting in its new form this year. And my boys have worked some matches there this week. (And WW - the tourney “rolls on” into next week.

I guess Ringo (groin) would have been too easy but the last name didn’t work!

Take the last name of a musical family that plays roughly the same kind of music as the musician that is the answer to this weeks challenge. The Family name meets the NEANDERTHAL EMBARRASS SATURATION CONTEMPTUOUSNESS criteria. (but is not composed exclusively of “narrow” or “short” letters)Two members of this family are very well-known to fans of that style of music.When you take the first name of the younger musician and insert a letter in it, phonetically you get the first name of a famous 20th century politician.When you take the first name of the older musician and insert the letters “D” and “T”, you get, reading left to right the last names of two other 20th century politicians. (One American and one Non-American)

The success of this week's on-air player, Andrew Laeuger, was impressive. A search for his name unsurprisingly lead to a young man who has many interests and accomplishments.There have been several other teenagers make it to the program, but my guess is that the average age of NPR Puzzlers approaches the middle years, so to speak; the many that hail to the "post card days."I wonder what the future holds for coming generations with interests like ours.I hope luminaries in the field, such as Will Shortz and our own legolambda, have plans for them

Next week's challenge: This challenge comes from listener Eric Chaikin of Los Angeles. The name of the film director David Lynch conceals the word AVIDLY in consecutive letters, spanning his first and last names. Can you think of a famous film director whose first and last names conceal a 6-letter name of car, past or present, in consecutive letters?

I congratulate Eric Chaikin on a very nice puzzle. The answer is very satisfying. Thank you, Eric,And, thanks also to jan, a great Blainsvillian, for posting these NPR Sunday puzzles at the crack of dawn.

jan,Would it be OK with you if I use your "delicious but self-deleted" riff-off puzzle on my Puzzleria! blog this Friday? I would give you credit, of course. (I would just identify you as "jan, a regular poster on Blaine's blog" or by your full name, if you wish.)Please let me know below, or email me at jrywriter@aol.com.Thank you.

Thanks, jan. I will use your riff-off because:1. It is ingenious, and2.You didn't leave your post up very long. Not that many people saw it.Also, my warmest regards to your wonderful wife, but I don't think your riff-off puzzle gave too much away. I doubt if Blaine would have deleted it (although he has been on a bit of "blog-admisistrator-tear" of late).